A Lesson From the the Voters’ League: Democracy Matters

In late October every other year, I get what I call the Election Blight. My ears ring, I dream in TV sound bites that promise disaster if one candidate or another isn’t elected, instead of counting sheep I count propositions, I can’t find honest-to-God legitimate letters in my mailbox because it is stuffed with electioneering portents of doom. That sort of thing.

When that happens, I always look for a fix. Leave the country. Sleep 16 hours a day. Refuse to turn on TV or radio. Go to a lot of bad movies. Avoid dinner parties, especially if they are made up primarily of Republicans.

This year, I found a new fix. It worked, and I want to tell you about it.

Several months ago, I was privileged to speak at the annual meeting of the Orange Coast chapter of the League of Women Voters. Before the program, I shared lunch with a group of animated, enthusiastic and involved league members. And when I asked them how they could still be enthusiastic given the state of current election campaigns in our republic, they told me. Firmly, thoughtfully and almost convincingly.

I remember thinking afterward that I wished I had taken notes. I knew what was coming. So when Election Blight hit me in its most virulent form a few days ago, I called Tricia Harrington--who heads up all of the Orange County leagues--and asked her if we could reprise that lunchtime conversation. And we did.

A week ago Monday I met Harrington, Ann Quilter (president of the Orange Coast chapter) and Barbara Wright (the Orange Coast membership chairwoman) to talk politics over coffee. And I got my fix.

The league is a nonpartisan but highly political group dedicated to developing and making public information on issues pertinent to local, state and national elections in the United States. This is done on the premise--no, the conviction--that given proper, unbiased and thorough background on issues, American voters will make informed decisions.

The league never takes partisan positions on candidates--no matter how sore the temptation--but sometimes does on issues that have been thoroughly studied internally. It also puts on candidate forums, a practice that started many years ago when the league sponsored some of the earliest presidential debates.

So my question, thrown out over coffee to these women who work so assiduously within our system was this: How can you keep your faith in an informed electorate when our elections have degenerated into personal attacks on candidates, sloganeering, outrageous and misleading statements and promises, and single-issue bigotry?

What came back to me evolved around three basic themes:

1. Put into historical perspective, today’s election scene isn’t as bad as I’m painting it.

“We like to remember the past as if all citizens were literate and informed themselves before voting. And candidates didn’t make personal attacks on each other,” Harrington said. “I don’t think it was ever that way. I don’t know if we’ve ever had a campaign strictly on issues.”

2. We’re in a period of basic political transition that is going to get better.

“Today,” said Quilter, “machine politics are mostly gone, but nothing has replaced them. As a result, discipline and central control are also gone. We’re in a period of transition between party politics and issue politics that all started to change with the matter of John Kennedy’s religion. Since then, more and more of the issues people were concerned about didn’t coincide with party positions. People used to vote the straight party ticket, but no longer. Look at the way the Republicans have emerged in the South.”

Added Wright: “There are also enormous social changes that affect our political system. Families are so different today, and we have so many more and complicated issues to deal with. We’re still very much in the process of sorting all this out.”

3. Reform is in the air--and on the way.

“There is a growing lack of trust in our system,” Harrington said. “Young people especially are disgusted with the process; they don’t vote because they don’t want to be involved in a process that validates candidates they don’t respect.

“Why is this feeling growing? Largely because our political system is controlled by access to money. We need reforms to correct this. We need to look more carefully into such possibilities as public financing of elections, equal access to media and automatic registration of voters.”

Added Quilter: “We also need to do something about the initiative system, which is badly out of whack in California. The present ballot is onerous with 28 complicated issues. Even given readable information, the most intelligent people can’t make sense out of this maze of issues.

“Here, the answer is simple. We have representative government, and that’s where the decisions should be made. Right now, our Legislature is giving up its role to the initiative. If we don’t turn that around pretty soon, our whole political process may be threatened.”

The bottom line with these three women--and, I suspect, with all of their associates in the league--is that our political system, despite its current excesses, needs loving care and attention, not abandonment.

“What are my choices?” Wright asked rhetorically. “Throw in my hat and say, ‘Too much, too out of control’? If I do that, I’ve lost.”

Said Harrington: “Let’s be perfectly honest. I do get discouraged. But I’ve found that one-on-one, people do care. They do want to make more informed choices. I believe enough in our country and our system that this work has become my vocation. And if I didn’t have confirmation once in awhile, I wouldn’t do it.”

Added Quilter: “We all like the political process. We believe in its untidy give-and-take. You know, we’re descendants of the suffragettes, and once they got the vote, they organized the league and went to work on women’s issues.

“We’ve suffered some losses in recent years because so many women are now working outside the home. In a sense, we’re the victims of our own success as feminists. But now we’re seeing a resurgence. I think the pro-choice issue is bringing women out of the woodwork.”

Wright wrapped it up with this: “People who lead can’t go through life with their cup half empty. Ours is half full. We’re in this for the long term. Democracy matters.”

So I got my fix. I’ll study those damned propositions. But I still won’t like it.